To think menstrual leave should be a thing?

[ItsTheSeasonOfTheStick]

It might just be me, but I find coming into work on my period really hard. I get awful cramps, I feel sick, I am exhausted even after sleeping a full night and I can feel myself bleeding all the time. I just find it so overwhelming and I’m in an awful mood. I’d happily work extra hours for the rest of the month to make up for it, but I genuinely find the first couple of days so hard to work through.

@JadziaD Flexibility is absolutely a benefit going from teacher to tutor...I cried happy tears when I got to take my 4 yo to school for her first day at school and since. And I can attend concerts, sports days, Nativity plays etc. My husband and I are even planning a little getaway in term-time!! ❤️

And when you say “get your life back,” what exactly do you mean by that? What does that look like?

I don’t like the insecurity of self-employment. We are trying to conceive and I like the maternity pay I’d be entitled to.

Not to say I wouldn’t consider it in the future @Mrsnothingthanks

No it isn’t, but I’ve never had a period that has anyway impacted my ability to do work other than maybe a couple of extra toilet trips during the work day.

If your periods are making you so ill then you can’t work, that is sickness and shouldn’t be treated any differently to anyone else with ongoing sickness issues. Just as plenty of people with say Crohns come to work just fine until they have a flare up then may need to take some time off.

Problem is, no woman who's of age to be menstruating would get a job ...

@PeonyPatch Being present for my own family, not working hours and hours every night before and after school and weekends and holidays. I do about 1-2 hrs a night prep for the days I tutor which still feels incredibly liberating.
I'm not going to need any more mat leaves because you're right - that would have been a problem.

I don't think women should automatically be supposed to work, partly for this reason

Also, some women can't use sanitary products

Sounds lovely. Good for you 🧡

I think women of childbearing age are discriminated against enough as it is to be honest. But that’s not a reason to simply stop campaigning or lobbying for change…

Every single month? You’d find yourself in a capability situation fairly quickly I suspect. Not all women would need it, some do. But it would be hard to weedle out the genuine cases from the ones who are abusing such a policy.

The ideal situation would be that you have an understanding boss who is willing to make accommodations for individual cases where needed. But I suspect employers like this are few and far between. It’s a very tricky one to navigate. But I think unless you’ve suffered with really bad periods you don’t realise how debilitating it can be.

It’s not sickness, I’d say it’s disability… if you have endometriosis… and reasonable adjustments need to be made.

I think if it's so bad that you literally can't sit at desk and do some work, it probably is a sickness rather than a normal period pain, though.

Plenty of women feel a bit rough when they get their period and have cramps, low mood, poor sleep etc, but I think most are capable of pushing on through it, unless they have a related sickness issue like endometriosis.

@PeonyPatch Thank you - I'm EOTAS and love it! Are you a teacher? 😀

This works nicely if you are in certain types of office job. Not so well for everyone else.

No, I am a therapist - work in mental health

Yes, as an incredibly heavy bleeder (think pad lasting 20 mins), and endo too, it was very hard working for at least one day a month. I had to and only ever went home early one in my career as I was working in the countryside with no access at all to a loo. I worked in a male dominated industry too, all immediate colleagues and bosses were men, making it awkward for me to discuss. I'd have happily worked an extra day a month to make up for the one day a month that really was terrible, 2nd day of my period.

I think flexible working and reasonable adjustments should be a thing for women who suffer and you shouldn’t have to be diagnosed to have the adjustments.

it wouldn’t personally work for me as work in education front facing! But for other women who could do condensed hours, flexitime or wfh.

People saying take sick leave - once a month you’re off you’ll be in a disciplinary quicker than you can say menstruation!

Although I don’t have pain, I think we are missing people you have severe PMS or PMDD I have great brain fog, depressive thoughts and holding in tears before I start my period! My friend is basically a mess for several days before and during her period and wouldn’t be able to hold down a job if she returned to work!

There are loads of chronic health conditions that get put down as sickness and people can’t help it, periods are the same.

I disagree I’m afraid. It’s not sickness… it’s a monthly biological function.

You'd feel infantilised by being told to use your own judgement as to whether you were in too much pain to work or not?
Weird, but whatever.

I think that rather than this more resources should be put behind resolving the issues that are giving these poor women pain

God there’s some ignorant people on this thread.

Yes, absolutely menstrual leave should be a thing for women who need it who suffer from: endometriosis, adenomyosis, severe dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia etc.

Also how would you prove it? Most women don't have periods like clockwork every 4 weeks. If you're takiing several days off every month at your employer's expense they have a right to ask for evidence. What would this evidence be and who would judge it? Sounds like an admin faff on top of everything else. Totally unworkable.

Yep. Brain fog, super-unstable emotions, despair, fucked-up sleep, horrific joint pain, ridiculous exhaustion, upset stomach...and then the pain. PMDD sucks. But I'm really glad to know a couple of paracetamol will fix it according a poster above. Wonder why I never thought of that.

I agree @PeonyPatch

The public world, and the world of work, are organised around male bodies and the male life-cycle.

In order to get access to work and then equal pay, women had to pretend their bodies were the same as men's. Even then, we still have a sex-pay gap of around 15% I think.

I can remember the time when a serious reason for not employing women as engineers or mechanics (or other occupations seen as mostly male ) was that there were no "facilities" for women. And more generally, feminists have been fighting for safe women's spaces such as public lavatories since the middle of the 19th century (look up the history of the "urinary leash").

We need to argue for a workplace & a public world where women are not treated as just defective men. But the problem is, menstrual leave woykd backfire on women, as the idea that women's bodies are the same as men's has been so deep-rooted in employment etc.

Personally, I think where we might make more useful & productive change is to stop assuming that pain during menstruation is "normal" and women just have to suck it up.

I had extremely painful periods (cold sweats, shivering, nausea, diarrhoea) throughout my thirties, and had to have hormone injections on occasion. There should have been an investigation about why I was in such pain, but it was always dismissed as just the "facts of life." Hormonal contraception really helped, but not all women want this.